Pauwels highly impressed by Team Sky

Belgian rider Serge Pauwels has moved to Team Sky from the Cervélo Test Team and is very happy with what he sees. “Team Sky is hyper-professional. I’ve made the right choice,” he told the Gazet van Antwerpen.

The British ProTour team is approaching the start of its debut season and he feels that there is a huge amount of attention to detail being paid. “In total we have about fifty people working with the team on a daily basis,” he stated.

“There is a dietician. There is a man who constantly studies other sports. We are also joined by someone who has worked with serial killers. He translates his experience into an environment where athletes are supposed to achieve optimal performance. He has impressed me.”

Pauwels – who is presumably referring to a psychologist rather than a psychopath – is satisfied that the support staff there will help him to move to a new level and to achieve bigger things that before.

"I already feel I've made the right choice by coming to Sky Team. At this moment in my career, the framework is very important. I did not feel that I already know everything. It seems the ideal change to a new step in my development as a rider. "

Now 26 years old, he turned professional with the Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen team in 2006, and remained there for three seasons. He was second on a stage of the 2006 Tour de l’Avenir and then won the mountains competition winner in the 2007 Tour Down Under. Last winter he moved to Cervélo and rode the Giro d’Italia several months later; second on stage 15, eighth on stage 19 and tenth on stage 20 were the highlights en route to a solid 33rd overall in the race.

That Grand Tour debut fuelled his hopes that he can evolve into a big rider for the longer races. “Someday I want to be a leader in the Grand Tours,” he said. “Team Sky wants me to go to the Tour. The Giro is also an option. I could ride more for myself there, but I'd prefer three weeks in France.”